My EVS in Bulgaria

Milena Gworyś

My name is Milena and at the beginning of September I came back home, to Poland, after finishing my EVS in Bulgaria.

During the summer I spent two months in Varna and I couldn’t have been more lucky – perfect weather, the warm sea, beautiful landscapes and so many places to go and visit.

For the first two weeks I spent time on a summer camp with children from Vista language school.

We were learning, playing and exploring. Museums, archery, horse riding, making mandalas, exploring caves and mountains, playing games and challenges. We were having fun and ending our days tired, but happy. I forgot how much energy children have. I was a little bit afraid because I had never worked with kids before, but it turned out to be a truly great experience.

After summer camp, I started working with foster centres, services for the blind and day care. The last one turned out to be my favourite place. I didn’t expect that I would like working with handicapped children but i was pleasantly suprised. I didn’t know the language (only basics), but I was still able to communicate with them through body language.

At the blind centre, I helped to make art work. It was a great place to learn Bulgarian because of the amazingly sociable and kind people there. I loved this atmosphere, working there was a real pleasure.

In foster care I was playing with kids and taking them to climbing wall. They made me smile every time when they were coming for a hug or showing me something that they learned.

I’ve met so many good, positive, open-minded people and they made my free time really fun. I found a great balance between my social life and time I needed to spend alone. My new friends, other volunteers and my mentors helped me, inspiring me and pushed me to do something more. I’m so grateful that we crossed paths.

I’m glad that I got all this experience, because it opened my eyes, showed me different ways of living, different cultures, inspired me and filled me with positive energy.

During these two months I laughed, learned and experienced a lot. I made a short movie with other volunteers, tried new sports, carried many interesting conversations with people from all around the world, travelled and got to know myself a little bit better.